The White House Just Took A Shot At Bill Kristol's Strategy Of Bombing ISIS

Colin Campbell, provided by

Published 1:54 pm, Friday, August 29, 2014

The White House isn't taking Weekly Standard founder and conservative pundit Bill Kristol's advice when it comes to battling the Islamic State forces in the Middle East.

Kristol argued in a radio interview on Monday that President Barack Obama should consider "bombing them at least for a few weeks and seeing what happens," according to audio posted by Mediaite.

During a Friday afternoon media briefing, however, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest mocked the proposal. After one reporter grilled Earnest over why Obama lacks a concrete strategy for combating the jihadist group in Syria, Earnest, unprompted, pointed to Kristol's remarks as an example of what's "not ... a smart approach" towards the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

"The Pentagon is still developing military options for the president, for the commander-in-chief, to use against ISIL in Syria. There are some who probably would make the case that it's okay to not have a formulated, comprehensive strategy. But, just as one pundit I know recently suggested, that we can just go drop some bombs and see what happens. That is not what the president believes is a smart approach," Earnest said.

Kristol did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. But in an editorial set to be published in the Sept. 8 edition of the Weekly Standard, Kristol sharply criticized Obama's foreign policy vision in the region.

"[A]n American president who was serious about marshaling and mobilizing the elements of national power behind a strategy for victory could, we suspect, defeat the Islamic State more quickly and more easily than President Obama thinks. But President Obama doesn’t have such a war strategy because he still doesn’t want to accept that we’re at war," Kristol wrote.